1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a data management system, a data management method and a recording medium which manage input material data including video/audio signals by storing the material data in a server in the case where the material data is sent to, for example, a broadcast network.
This application claims priority of Japanese Patent Application No. 2003-170004, filed on Jun. 13, 2003, the entirety of which is incorporated by reference herein.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a TV program to be broadcasted by broadcasting stations is supplied such that material data, which is audio/video signal, taken by TV video camera is once recorded for later reproduction on a non-linear accessible server, then additional material data for TV spot or the like is inserted into the material data to edit the resultant material data for TV broadcast, and the edited data is sent to a broadcast network. Such Recording and reproducing processes of material data for TV broadcast are performed through a data recording/reproduction apparatus as disclosed in, for example, Patent Document 1 (Jpn. Pat. Appln. Laid-Open Publication No. 2001-149410).
FIG. 1 shows a configuration of the data recording/reproduction apparatus in which the above recording and reproducing processes are performed. For a recording process of externally input material data in this data recording/reproduction apparatus 9, firstly, data input through a port 161A is compressed by an encoder 162, and the compressed data is then temporarily stored in a buffer memory 166. A data management unit 134A accesses a recording/reproduction unit 133 in the time slot period assigned thereto so as to transfer the data stored in the buffer memory 166 to the recording/reproduction unit 133 via an internal bus 130.
In the recording/reproduction unit 133, the transferred data is temporarily stored in a buffer memory 149 followed by being divided by a predetermined unit. The resultant data is finally stored in an HDD 145 with parity data being added to each of the divided data.
Next, for output of the data stored in the HDD 145 to outside of the apparatus, firstly, a data management unit 134B accesses the recording/reproduction unit 133 in the time slot period assigned thereto so as to make a request for data reproduction. Upon receiving the request, the recording/reproduction unit 133 allows a video disc controller 147 to read out the data and parity data stored in the HDD 145. The read out data and parity data are then subjected to error correction, and thus, the material data is reproduced. After being temporarily stored in a buffer memory 149, the reproduced material data is read out and transferred to the data management unit 134B via the internal bus 130.
The material data is then transferred via a buffer memory 167 in the data management unit 134B to a decoder 163 in a data input/output unit 137B for data expansion, followed by being transferred via a switch 165 to a port 161B, through which the material data is output to outside of the apparatus.
Further, for editing the material data for TV broadcast by inserting additional material data for TV spot or the like into the material data, an edit unit 151 extracts at least one of the data input from outside of the apparatus and the data reproduced by the recording/reproduction unit 133, to execute the editing operation. The edit unit 151 uses a matrix switcher, an audio mixer, or the like included therein, or utilize, as needed, functions of a special effect unit 139 to edit the extracted data. That is, according to the conventional data recording/reproduction apparatus, recording/reproduction function, input/output function and edit function can be realized by a single apparatus.
For the above conventional data recording/reproduction apparatus, a system has been proposed, in which recording/reproduction processing can be realized by means of two types of storages: a material server for recording generated material data in the first instance, and an ON-AIR server for storing material data to be reconstructed for on-air has been proposed.
In the above system, especially a system in which the same material data are recorded on both the material server and ON-AIR server (hereinafter, referred to as OA server) in order to handle the material data existing in the both servers as a single metadata item has been required. Further, another system has been required, in which only the material data existing in one of the material server and OA server can be deleted.
However, in order to record the same material data on the material server and OA server, a material data stored in the material server must be transferred to the OA server. Since the transfer rate in this operation is limited to a fixed rate or less, a great deal of time is required to transfer a large amount of material data to the OA server, failing to realize a smooth transfer operation.
Further, in the case of deleting the same data items stored in both the material server and OA server, moving them between folders, or renaming them, a user must carry out these operations for each server, so that the burden of the user is getting large.
Further, the above system is expected to realize functions of easily separating the material data that are to be transferred to the OA server from among the material data stored in the material server, and displaying, by a list, the data items in a hierarchical manner in order to improve convenience for the user that manages the system.